Results on Eurostat affair within months, says anti-fraud report
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is part of the European Commission (Photo: OLAF)
HONOR MAHONY
25.11.2004 @ 17:44 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The number of cases reported to the European anti-fraud office has gone up by nine percent, according to this year's annual report due to be published on Friday - with most of the fraud cases related to the agricultural sector.
Italy has the highest number of new cases over the year (96) followed by Germany (89) and then Spain (48) - at the other end of the scale, Finland emerges with the least cases (4).
Of the ten new member states and three candidate countries, Romania is well ahead with 33 new cases - Poland follows with 22 cases.
Several institutions affected
Meanwhile, most of the European institutions either have anti-corruption cases being evaluated or have cases that are being actively investigated.
The European Commission is at the top with 18 cases being evaluated and 38 active investigations - another six cases affect more than one unit in the Brussels executive.
The European Parliament and Council have two active investigations each.
Development aid corruption
One problem area that the report highlights is in the area of development aid.
The report refers to "the complex and well-organised nature of financial fraud in humanitarian and development EU aid to third countries".
"Such fraud takes advantage of the lack of coordination in monitoring and auditing activities between the various international donors".
The report cites one case it opened, concerning a dam in Lesotho, which was to provide water to neighbouring South Africa. A bank account in Switzerland contains over 3 million euro in suspected bribes for a Lesotho official - over the years more than 180 million euro had been pumped into the project.
Eurostat
Referring to Eurostat, one of OLAF's most high-profile cases which came to light last year and involved millions of euro being siphoned into private bank accounts, the director of OLAF said he expects "visible results within months".
"A number of dossiers are under investigation by national judicial authorities", says Franz-Herman Brüner.
Mr Brüner also hit back at accusations that OLAF does not respect the right of individuals - a reference to Hans-Martin Tillack, the Stern journalist, who was detained earlier this year following allegations that he had bribed an EU official to obtain internal OLAF documents.
According to the director, the "case-law does not substantiate the assertions sometimes made that OLAF does not respect the right of individuals".
Critics
A relatively new body (set up in 1999), OLAF has its share of critics. It has been accused of working too slowly on cases and has been accused of not being sufficiently independent.
The body is part of the European Commission.
Earlier this year, the Chairman of OLAF's supervisory body, Raymond Edward Kendall, said that OLAF had been given "enormous powers with no legal supervision" and accused the organisation of having structural problems.
"OLAF has faced a steep learning curve in its core business of investigating and deterring fraud", says Mr Brüner.
